GEORGE CRABBE, THE APOTHECARY POET.
Not the least distinguished among the names of doctors who have distinguished themselves in the world of literature, is that of George Crabbe. He was the son of the collector of salt dues at Aldborough, in Suffolk, where he was born on Christmas Eve, 1754. His father strove to give his children an education somewhat above their station in life; and George was kept at school at Bungay and Stowmarket till his fourteenth year—his comparative delicacy of constitution inducing his father to destine him to a gentler pursuit than those followed by his brothers. Leaving school, he was apprenticed to a country doctor, half farmer half physician, at Wickham Brook, near Bury St. Edmunds, where he shared the bed of his master's stable-boy. This and other désagrémens of the situation, however, did not suit Crabbe's likings or his father's honest pride; and in a couple of years he was removed, and placed with Mr. Page, a surgeon at Woodbridge, and a gentleman of family and taste. Here he found time and circumstances favouring to make his first essays in poetry; and in 1775 published his first work of consequence, Inebriety, a Poem: in three parts. At the expiry of his apprenticeship, Crabbe vainly tried to raise funds for a regular course of study in London, and had to content himself with settling down in his native village in a small practice as surgeon and apothecary; but this proving an insufficient source of income, he resolved to venture his fortunes in London, in dependence on his poetic talent. "With this view he proceeded to London; and after a year spent in that most trying of all situations, that of a literary adventurer without money and without friends—a situation from the miseries of which the unfortunate Chatterton, 'the wondrous boy,' escaped by suicide—when on the point of being thrown into jail for the little debts which he had unavoidably contracted, as a last resource, in an auspicious moment, he had applied to Edmund Burke for assistance, transmitting to him at the same time some verses as a specimen of his abilities. In these sketches Burke at once recognised the hand of a master. He invited the poet to Beaconsfield; installed him in a convenient apartment; opened up to him the stores of his library; watched over his progress, and afforded him the benefit of his taste and literary skill." "The Library" soon appeared, and Crabbe was famous. By Burke's advice he went into holy orders; he was appointed chaplain to the household of the Duke of Rutland, obtained ample Church preferment, and pursued his path to fame.